KaChing has just finished a new round of financing (led by DAG ventures), raising $7.5 million. KaChing allows you to manage a stock portfolio in the US, and share it with other users. KaChing has recruited a number of leading Geniuses and users can track those as well.

Via The Marker (hebrew)

The Marker reports that Greylock partners just raised $575 Million. This is good news as Graylock will most likely will continue to invest in Israeli startups (one of their 3 offices is in Herzelia...).

FaceFu, which allows the creation of location-based social networks, has got an investment from Shuki Glaser. The Marker reports that the investment is in the range of a few hundred-thousand dollars.

TheMarker reports that Teddy Sagi (from Playtech, a company that manages online casinos) is set to become a leading Web angel in Israel, and intends to invest more and more in startups. The first company he invested in is ReImage, which provides computer-fixing services through an automated web service.

Virtual Tweens has raised 1M$, led by Gemini partners and private investors. Virtal Tweens runs an educational virtual world for kids, called Ekoloko.

Via TheMarker (Hebrew)

Contigo (previously WeFi) raised 10M$ in their second round, from Pitango and Gemini. WeFi is a Wi-Fi social network service. They say they recently reached 30M$ registered users.

Via TheMarker (hebrew)

5Min, the Videopedia site, raised 7.5M$ from several VCs, led by Globespan capital. 5Min says they have over 100,000 videos, watched by over 200M users a month. They also have 'significant' revenue from ads.

Via Globes (hebrew)

According to Pc.co.il, Kampyle raised money (we do not know how much) from Carmel VC. Good job, guys!

Israeli Startup, Sense-Of-Fashion raised 260K$ (from Jeff Pulver and other private investors). The company has a web site (already live with revenue) that is a trading platform for fashion.

Via Globes (Hebrew)

I was invited to lecture at ISEMI about raising funds from private investors.
In order for my lecture to be relevant and up-to-date I've decided to check the current situation regarding this issue.

I've approached a few serious angel investors who were willing to share their views. 
As I suspected, it is not easy at all to get funding these days.
Out of 7 investor I contacted only 3 declare they still invest. 
The estimate is that there is a drop of 50-90% in private investments.

I'll try to summarize what I've learnt from these discussions.

The dark side: